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Interpenetrations: Islam and Europe/Interpénétrations : L'Islam et l'Europe |
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reviewed by Müge Akpinar |
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Author: Nilüfer Göle |
ISBN:
978-975-342-705-0 |
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Publisher:
Metis Kitap |
Page:
200 |
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Type:
Paperback |
Price:
$10 |
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Place of Publication:
Istanbul |
Published in:
2009 |
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Review: |
In her new book, Interpénétrations: L'Islametl'Europe (Interpenetration: Islam and Europe–translated to Turkish from French by Ali Berktay, as ‘ÝçÝçeGiriţler: ÝslamveAvrupa’ 2008), Nilüfer Göle considers basic ‘conflictual’ issues in today’s modern societies. Göle is a professor of sociology at the École des HautesÉtudes in Paris and a distinguished Turkish scholar specializing in the issues of identity, Islam, modernity, gender and women. She is the author of many books, including Engineers and Ideology (MühendislerveÝdeoloji, 1986), The Forbidden Modern and (Modern Mahrem, 1991), Hybrid Patterns (MelezDesenler, 2000).
Interpénétrations: L'Islametl'Europe has thirteen chapters and each chapter can be considered an interdependent article within the context of the book. The articles focus on large-scale issues ranging from topics on women, gender and identity, to globalization, terror attacks, Islamization and modernity. This book might be classified as an edition to Göle’s articles and insights based on her previous research and works.
Conflicts included in the book are usually closely related to religion or culture-based debates. Islam, seen as one of the main reasons of modern conflicts, has new dimensions that express emerging challenges related to the definitions and perceptions of itself. Here we deal with the problem of conceptualizing modernity. According to Göle, Islamization is occurring at the same time asmodernity. It is more likely a contemporary phenomenon that covers lifestyles and norms that modernity suggests. Furthermore, Islam gets an international identity that is underpinned by globalization. From that standpoint, Islam does not represent regional or national but global and international interests. The simultaneous emergence of globalization and Islamization has come into existence.
Göle claims that ‘the West/Europe’ and ‘Islam’ are the complementary components of their identities. If differences were conceived as tools of constructing ideal others, then a conservative homogeneity would be demanded in the societal sphere. Thus, differences would be associated with an ‘othering’ process that can easily be used to strengthen both identity building and creating absolute enemies. Islam has been historically perceived as a counter identity to Western values. The reader can find out some similarities between Göle’s approach and Edward Said’s conceptualization of the ‘Orient’.Göle’s sociological approach has produced a critique of Eurocentrism in accordance with emerging Islamic identities in the 20th century. Here we deal with the question of the ‘othering’ process and a biased perception of Islam or the ‘East’ by the ‘West’ as taken into consideration in Said’s masterpiece Orientalism. Islam is a vital part of the ‘East’ that was a constructed ‘other’ by the ‘West’. Said outlines how threatening such a biased perception is, especially in politics. That biased perception does not meet the requirements of a reciprocal construction of identities. That construction must be an interactive process and the ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ identities are equally determinant on this interaction. At that point, Göle outlines the reciprocity between cultural components. Göle emphasizes the relations between Islam and the Western world and analyzes the interactions and transformations in multicultural societies within the reflection of historical consciousness on the practicesof daily life.
Furthermore, we can see an analogy between what Göle claims and Said’s point of view particularly in topics related to identity building. Identity building is an interactive process just like the integration that requires mutual understanding and willingness. Göle points out that there is not a pure identity of the West/Europe. Europe should learn how to integrate both Muslim migrants and itself to the society. Throughout the integration process new values and social norms would be constructed and both sides – homelanders and migrants – ought to reconcile with the 'other'. This reconciliation is of growing importance. Though it is not an easy one. The relation between Islam and the West/Europe has been historically covering issues such as identity conflicts or differences in social and cultural regulations. With the term of 'modernity', the relation between them took an asymmetric shape, especially from 19th century onwards. Thereby the West/Europe stands as a model of developed civilization in the eyes of the 'undeveloped' ones of the Islamic world. In the mid-21st century circumstances have gained some different characteristics. As a result of international migrations and globalization Muslims have become powerful in the West/Europe.
The new Muslim generations in the West/Europe have begun to live with Islamic values within a European concept of modernity. That is, they have become more visible in the public sphere. They have the same civil rights just as the other citizens, they go to the school, they vote and they work etc. This yields the emergence of a population with a set of Islamic values and norms in a 'modern' environment. This kind of lifestyle made the West/Europe suspicious of its future and identity implying also the necessity that West/Europe has to face and reflect on its own democracy. Islam was perceived as a threat in European historical consciousness. A reverse formulation is also valid: European Christianity was perceived as a threat by Muslim countries. Such controversial perceptions have taken place in historical, geographical and political consciousnesses. In the aftermath of 9/11 Islam was identified with Islamization or even with global terrorism.
Göle claims that globalization and terrorism are closely related to each other. But that relationdoes not justify the perception of Islam as an absolute threat toWestern values. The need to create a public sphere seems to be vital than ever. The culture and identity of Islam should be considered in the West/Europe as a social fact, a complementary part of the European identity. There is a dialectic relation between the West/Europe and Islam whereby their synthesis would hinder extreme discourses about 'pure' identity. Through such a synthesis both sides would criticize and examine their insights in a constructive way. Of course this would not be easy, but would be at least an honest effort to manage living together.
Another prominent fact to consider is the contemporary feature of Islam. Islam underwent a great number of changes. It is not of a steady nature, as neither are the cultural entities. These changes enable new generations to live with Islamic values within 'modern' concepts. Now Europe has to learn to accept Muslim Europeans as it had accepted ex-communist states. Contemporary resolution models for identity crisis cannot be efficiently explained with Huntington's theory of the clash of civilizations. Such a clash makesdifferences between cultures and religions just more visible by overlooking the 'complementary’ role of the other. Göle gives two examples of transition points between the 'West' and the 'East': The collapse of Mostar Bridge and the 9/11 attacks. The demolition of Mostar Bridge during the Bosnian War in 1993 by the Hirvats represents also the European neglect of European Muslims. The reconstruction of Mostar Bridge in 2004 was not taken into consideration by Europeans as the collapse of the Berlin Wall was. The symbolic meaning of the fall of the Berlin Wall refers to the integration between the communist world and the ‘West’. This brought out also an identity problem as a result of the lack of a 'constructive other'. The symbolic meaning of the reconstruction of Mostar Bridge is also of prominence; however, it did no result in such an integration. The 9/11 attacks are also a transition point in a sense that the ‘West’ and ‘East’ met. But that meeting caused growing contradictions between them through ‘Islamic terrorism’.
Islam and the modern concept of Islamization are not the same. Islamization represents a kind of mixture ofIslamic and European/Western values, whereby 'othering' is more visible. It also differs from the conventional structure of Islam in a way that Islamization is based on controversies between the 'West' and Islam. Such an attitude is common both in Islamic and Western thinking. If the differences were perceived as absolute controversies, identities would be otherized and outcasted. That the European integration is considered not a project but an identity is consistent with this fact. Europe has taken more serious security precautions and strengthened its migration and security policies. It leads to a dichotomized world perception of 'we' and 'others'. But identities should not have such clear definitions. There can be some overlapping fields between cultural practices, norms or beliefs. Expanding our vision to see penetrable fields enables us also to expand the cultural boundaries, differences–not controversies–and similarities as well. Cultures and identities are not solid and unchangeable entities, rather they share a great number of transition points. The more expanded the boundaries are, the higher the probability is to achieve multiculturalism within a transitive context without labeling differences as a source of threatening identity crisis. In relation to this, Göle’s approach attempts to avoid and go beyond the conflicts between defenders of an extreme form of Islamization and of a ‘pure’ European identity.
Last but not least it is to say that Göle’s sociological approach to the contemporary contradictions mainly based on culture and identity makes us see alternative standpoints to reevaluate our (mis)perceptions of the ‘other’. I think the term ‘’transitive’/’penetrable’ expresses the exact meaning of overlapping characteristics of cultural bodies. It is almost impossible to draw definitive and fixed borders between cultures and identities. Such an attempt would cause blind ignorance of the ‘penetrable’ components of living space thatwould also narrow our stance towards ‘the other’ to a very limited level. This point becomes more visible in this volume, which constitutes a gestalt altogether referring to the transformation and redefinition of identities at a global level of multicultural interaction covering the problematic issues of modern times. Thereby Göle’s contribution to the sociology literature is of great prominence.
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about book: |
In her new book ‘Interpénétrations: L'Islametl'Europe’(Interpenetration: Islam and Europe–translated to Turkish from French by Ali Berktay, as ‘ÝçÝçeGiriţler: ÝslamveAvrupa’ 2008) Nilüfer Göle considers basic ‘conflictual’ issues in today’s modern societies. Nilüfer Göle is a professor of sociology at the École des HautesÉtudes in Paris and a distinguished Turkish scholar specializing in the issues of identity, Islam, modernity, gender and women. She is the author of many books, including Engineers and Ideology (MühendislerveÝdeoloji, 1986), The Forbidden Modern and (Modern Mahrem, 1991), Hybrid Patterns (MelezDesenler, 2000).
Interpénétrations: L'Islametl'Europe has thirteen chapters and each chapter can be considered an interdependent article within the context of the book. The articles focus on large-scale issues ranging from topics on women, gender and identity, to globalization, terror attacks, Islamization and modernity. This book might be classified as an edition to Göle’s articles and insights based on her previous research and works.
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